The Oasis reunion was supposed to be pure nostalgia. Britpop anthems, brotherly chaos, and a Cardiff crowd screaming every word. Instead, the run-up to the show got dark fast.
An 18-year-old from Cwmbran, Wales, McKenzie Morgan, has been sentenced to 14 months in custody after pleading guilty to possessing an al-Qaeda training manual. According to the BBC, authorities feared Morgan was inspired by a recent real-world tragedy and was considering an attack around the first Oasis reunion concert in Cardiff.
Morgan’s conviction falls under the UK’s Terrorism Act 2000, specifically for possession of extremist material. Importantly, he was not sentenced for actively planning an attack. Prosecutors said any plans were undeveloped and incomplete.
Still, the context rattled everyone involved.
The court heard that Morgan had researched how to make a crude explosive device and discussed the possibility of using a knife to harm concertgoers. His fixation reportedly escalated after the mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed event in Southport, where Axel Rudakubana killed three young girls and injured ten others.
Morgan was first arrested, released on bail, and then detained again on June 19, 2025, just weeks before the Gallagher brothers were due to hit the stage in Cardiff. At the time, he was only 17.
Judge Sarah Whitehouse made something very clear. This was not about politics or religion.
The court concluded Morgan was driven by notoriety, not ideology. He wanted to imitate Rudakubana, chasing the twisted attention that follows acts of extreme violence. That detail matters. It speaks to a wider issue facing youth culture online, where violence can become content, infamy becomes currency, and algorithms do not care how dark the obsession gets.